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LETTERS 



FROM 



THE LATE PROFESSOR CARLYLE 



TO 



THE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 



LETTER I. 



My Lord, Larnica, Cyprus, Feb. 13, 1800. 



I had hoped long before this time to have been able to communicate 

 to your Lordship some intelligence respecting the library of the 

 Seraglio ; I had even nattered myself from the reception we met with 

 that I should have made a considerable progress in examining its 

 contents. But I know not how it has happened, whether from the 

 pressure of public business, or from whatever other cause, during the 

 first two months of my stay in Constantinople, I was not able to get 

 any thing done towards facilitating my admission into the library. 

 In the middle of January the plague broke out in the Seraglio with 

 considerable violence ; an entire stop was, of course, put to any in- 

 vestigations I might wish to make within its precincts for some time. 

 I trust, however, as the present Sultan is extremely apprehensive of 

 the disorder himself, and willing to take any precautions that may be 

 thought proper for preventing its progress, that the distemper will not 

 become general, and then I shall soon have an opportunity of prose- 

 cuting my researches in earnest. As I was thus precluded from 

 employing myself at Constantinople to any material purpose (for I 

 could no longer with safety frequent even the public libraries from 

 which I had previously, I trust, drawn considerable information in 

 Oriental literature), I resolved not to waste my time at Pera. I 



